The Hole
by FrankandJoe3
Summary: There's a hole in the kitchen floor and Artemis seems to be the only one who cares.


**This is based off of a YouTube video: "The Hole", by TomSka. It was this short and really funny thing, and I wanted to put it to Young Justice. If it makes no sense, that's because the YouTube version didn't either. It made my night, though. **

* * *

It wasn't that often that the team of younger heroes had to stay overnight at the Cave, but it did happen on occasion, and last night had been one of those occasions.

It had been eleven, nearly midnight, as the team had gotten ready to leave, only to be stopped by a frantic alert that shot through their com. links like a wildfire. The computer up at the Watchtower had picked up something. That's where the details had effectively cut off, and the other Leaguers had taken to ignoring their younger members, so the teens hung around in case they were needed. They all had fallen asleep at their respective times with no further alerts.

Artemis didn't even bother to check her phone for the time as she rolled out of her bed, gathering her tangled hair into a sloppy ponytail with a yawn. She checked the mirror to make sure she wasn't showing too much unnecessary flesh, adjusting her tank top, and then she fished in the pockets of her pajama pants to find her phone. It wasn't in either pocket, and as a quick search of the room revealed, anywhere else.

Immediately, she blamed Wally, and made up her mind to confront him about.

With a little huff, she left her room and made her way down the hallway until she came upon him and Robin in the kitchen. They were in the bar stools, the younger of which swinging his feet idly while the elder scarfed down what couldn't have been his first donut. They both raised a hand in a wave when they noticed her, and she managed a smile in return.

"Have you guys seen my phone?" she asked the both of them, folding her arms over her chest accusingly.

Robin and Wally looked at each other, both putting on a separate face of contemplation before they seemed to come to an agreement without having said a word.

"iPhone 5c?" Wally asked.

"Light blue, crack in the right corner?" Robin added.

Artemis shifted her weight to her other foot and narrowed her eyes a little suspiciously as she nodded.

"Yeah," Robin echoed her nod, picking up the glass of orange juice that Artemis had originally thought to be Wally's. "Pretty sure it fell in the hole."

The blonde's brows furrowed now, and she looked around, a little confused. "What hole?"

Wally jerked his head to the right, and Robin pointed that same way, so Artemis took the few steps over past the edge of the bar, not sure what to expect. In the middle of the kitchen was a hole, maybe three feet wide, perfectly serrated through the wood. It gave a low howl and she flinched at the sight.

"Oh my god!" she cried, looking back at the two on the bar stools. "What is that?"

"It's a hole," Robin offered lamely, taking a drink of the orange juice.

Artemis gave an annoyed little huff. "Yes, I can see that. What's it doing there?"

The darker haired boy looked over at Wally and they seemed to come to an agreement without having to say a word out loud again. It was to the point that Artemis assumed everyone on the team was telepathically linked with Megan right now except for her.

"Well, I woke up this morning and joined Wally for breakfast," Robin said casually, taking another drink, "and there was a hole."

Artemis stared, exasperated, taking caution to distance herself from the gaping hole in the kitchen floor. It didn't seem to be doing any definite harm, but the low rustle coming from it definitely didn't put her at ease.

"What are you going to do about it?" she asked after a while.

Wally hopped down from the bar stool and slid past her with a murmured apology, walking around the hole as though it were nothing more than a spill to get to the fridge. He opened it, and looked back at Artemis over his shoulder.

"I put a rug over it," he offered.

He turned back to the fridge and pulled out the yellow carton of donuts, side-stepping the obviously rug-less hole on his way back to the bar stool. The redhead offered Artemis one, but she couldn't even think about eating right now.

"Yeah, it fell in the hole," Robin explained, looking through the carton for a glazed donut.

Their lack of concern was only adding to her own, the whistle of the hole making her even more nervous. She knew it wasn't a hole out of the Cave because it was built into a mountain, and a straight shoot like that wouldn't even make sense.

"Should we... send a camera down, or something? See how deep it is?" she asked after listening to them snack down carelessly on their breakfast.

"Oh yeah," Wally laughed around a mouthful of donut.

Artemis looked at him and raised an eyebrow, looking to Robin when he couldn't be bothered to stop stuffing his face.

"We sent down a camera," Robin clarified, setting his orange juice down and wiping off the mock-mustache it had left above his lip.

Artemis waited patiently for them to go on, to hear the reason that they were so calm, but neither of them made a move to explain further. She gave a little huff.

"Well, where is it?" she prompted them.

Wally and Robin exchanged a glass before saying in near perfect unison, "In the hole."

Artemis gave a very not-relieved sigh and rubbed her eyes. No one had any idea what was down this _hole _in the kitchen floor and no one but her seemed to care. In the midst of rubbing her ears, she was reminded of the com. link in her ear and thought of the one person who definitely had to care.

"Where's Batman?" she asked Robin, figuring he of all people would know.

The thirteen year old looked around with a growing smirk, and Artemis' stomach turned over nervously.

"Robin... where's Batman?" she asked again, slower.

Robin gave a breathy laugh, taking another drink of orange juice. "He's at work."

"Oh," Artemis gave a happier sigh, managing a small smile, before pausing again. "Where's he work?"

"In the hole."

She would have hit him as he snickered, but the hole in question gave a louder howl and she jumped at the noise.

"_God_! How deep even is that thing?"

She looked around for something to answer her own question when the boys made no effort to help, and settled on Robin's orange juice. Carefully, she took the glass over to the hole, or at least as close as she would let herself get, and then dropped it. She listened carefully, but she never heard it shatter.

"I wasn't done with that," Robin pouted, looking down at his feet.

"Now it's in the hole," Wally reminded him, not helping the pout.

Artemis carefully circled to the opposite side of the hole by the refrigerator and the cabinets that lined that wall and set her forehead carefully against them. There was just too much to process, and the others weren't taking it seriously. This was a seemingly endless hole in their kitchen floor that made noises and apparently consumed rugs. She couldn't be the _only _one freaked out by it.

"Guys, do you even know what this?" she asked, more into the cabinet door. "For all we know, it could be an..." she sat up, and looked over towards the others, "inter-dimensional wormhole, or a gateway to _hell_ or- Wally?"

The redhead wasn't in his seat, although his plate still was, and her heart momentarily stopped. Robin was staring at the hole, and a shiver ran down Artemis' back.

"Wally?" she asked, a little weakly, and carefully made her way over to the hole, expecting the worst.

She stared down into its depths, the endless blackness, and yelled his name down into it. When she looked back up, she saw him standing on the opposite side of the hole, leaning against the counter with a blanket around his shoulders.

"What's up?" he asked casually, and lifted the edge of his blanket. "Got a blanket."

Artemis gave an exhausted sigh and put her hand to her forehead, heart catching back up with her again.

"Wally, will you _please_ take this seriously?" she cried.

She had barely finished getting the words out when an arm shot up from the depths of the hole, rotted and mostly colorless, flailing in time with the sharp shriek the hole gave. Artemis gave a surprised scream.

Robin didn't flinch in getting to his knees on the bar stool and throwing a batarang at the arm. It struck and the hole gave a scream of its own before the limb disappeared once more. As though it hadn't happened, Robin slid back down into his seat and stole another donut from the carton. Wally made his way back into his seat in time to bat at his friend's hand when he tried taking a second.

"What... was _that_?" Artemis asked once she could breathe steadily.

They both stared at her over their donuts.

"A hole person," Wally offered.

"Where did it come from?" she tried again.

They continued to stare, but this time, Robin took a rather large bite from his donut.

"Right," the blonde took a few shaky steps back, setting her back to the cabinet doors. "The hole."

She leaned her head back against the door and watched the ceiling, listening to the low hums and gurgles of the hole until she was as used to it as she was going to get. Only then, when she could think clearly, did she have the sense to turn back to them and ask the most obvious question.

"Why are you being so calm about this?"

Robin swallowed what he had in his mouth and jerked his hand towards the living room with a little shrug, "We're more worried about the space octopus."

"What space octopus?" Artemis was quick to ask, leaning up from the cabinet to follow where he had pointed.

Where there had once been a TV and a wall was now a massive hole that opened to the sky outside, where a mass of slimy tentacles bigger than the size of the three of them combined swarmed and squirmed eagerly.

"That one," Wally offered.

He reached to pull his blanket tighter around himself while Artemis darted off, presumably to find something to fight the giant beast that the earlier visiting Leaguers had specifically told them not to mess with until they had handled it. In the process, he noticed a bulge in his pocket, and pulled it out. It was an iPhone 5c, light blue, slightly cracked.

"Oh, here it is," he showed Robin with a little laugh.

* * *

**-F.J. III**


End file.
